10 Web Design Trends You Can Expect in 2014

There are many exciting things that 2014 has in store for us who live, work, and produce the World Wide Web.

Last year, we looked at the 10 Web design trends for 2013. Many of the trends that were spotted last year are still around today and will undoubtedly take off into 2014. After all, that’s why they are called trends and not fads, as trends tend to stick around for a few years while fads are only hot for a very short time.

Let’s look ahead and see what kind of new(ish) Web design trends we can look for and be inspired in 2014.

1. Non-boring typography
It’s great to see more designers experimenting with different types of type. One trend with type we can expect to see in 2014 is fonts with personality.

“Fonts with personality” are fonts that feel like they can stand on their own. They are not your standard serif or sans-serif font. Designers are starting to find different fonts to add to their arsenal that add a little personality and uniqueness to their designs.

We expect to see many more websites in 2014 getting away from very simple and overused typefaces and finding some with personality.

2. Flat design
Oh Apple, how we love thee.

Last year we said that more than likely, Apple was going to shake its Skeuomorphism, and boy did they ever. With the release of iOS7 came the design aesthetic most commonly known as “flat design.” While dropping drop shadows and gradients often seems like a good idea in some cases to give a more updated look to things, Apple took it to a whole other level by dropping pretty much any design element it could.

Apple has for a long time been a trendsetter, and what Apple does, the rest of the world seems to follow. iOS7 has been out for a while and already there are a flood of sites coming online every day with new “flat” designs. We don’t anticipate this trend ending in 2014.

3. Large hero areas quickly killing sliders
If you asked us what is the #1 trend in Web design today, this would be it.

Large hero areas (the “intro” area, often an image with a little amount of text, at the top of a website – a borrowed term from print design) on website home pages are running rampant and it is a trend we don’t see going away either in 2014. They are quickly taking over real estate on websites where sliders used to reside.

Either it be a simple blurred photo in the background with a heading centered in the middle, or a more elaborate one. Hero areas are quickly replacing sliders as the new attention-grabbers, and they are becoming increasingly creative and elaborate.

4. Heavier focus on mobile
Now that responsive Web design is becoming more common place, we are starting to see websites dig deeper into our mobile lifestyles.

Designers are increasingly working on keeping their sites functioning on mobile devices, but developers are taking it a step further to help along with the fact that so many more devices are accessing the Web, and so many more users are using their phones to browse the Web.

Wondering what some things are being done? Integration with social media, asking for email subscriptions, long scrolling sites, and fast loading sites all help make the mobile Web a friendlier place.

5. Videos in place of text
Why read about it when you can watch it? Something else you will start seeing all over the Web (especially in hero areas) are videos.

Videos are becoming easier to produce, and easier to share not on your website, but on social media as well. While some may argue that videos don’t belong on a website home page due to the large amount of data they take to load and run (especially on mobile devices and internet with data caps), videos are an effective way to communicate something technical or new when words just don’t cut it.

Plus, many video services such as YouTube allow you to track how many views it got, allowing you to better plan your content for your website.

6. Long scrolling sites
We’ve become comfortable with scrolling through a website to read and find information, and now with websites using more design techniques such as increased white space and responsive Web design, long scrolling sites are starting to appear again.

Several years ago, it was common to have long scrolling sites that where slammed with content. Well, now we are seeing long scrolling websites but the content is more organized and in a much easier format to digest.

7. Simple color schemes
We can’t have a post on design trends without talking about color. In 2014, we will see a lot more website with very simple color schemes. And by simple, we mean really only one or two colors.

Some websites being launched now are using very little color, or even forgoing color all together. White, black, and everything in between are popular color schemes now, and adding just a hit of another color, such as red, adds drama and impact – all things that garnish attention when used in the right way.

8. Simplified content
We’ve kind of hit on this throughout this post, but while 2013 seemed to be the year of King Content, 2014 will keep the king humble and down to earth. Simpler content will dominate 2014 and beyond as we design our websites.

Simplified content means short bursts of content, a la Twitter style. Over the years as a population, our attention spans have become shorter, so designers have compensated for that by putting content in short bursts instead of long narratives.

Not many areas on websites these days (except blog posts) have more than about 250 characters. It is because it is easier and faster to read for users who like to scan the page.

9. Dropping the sidebar
This is more for blog or magazine-type sites, but many of these sites are experimenting with dropping the sidebar all together. This allows for a more visual impact with content (and easier responsive Web development).

Imagine this: you reading an article without things flashing, crowding, or otherwise buying for your attention. Designers understand this and are working to make your reading experience more pleasant by getting rid of these distractions and expanding the content of the article to take over the page.

10. Manipulated imagery
While it is easy to just throw any old photo on your site, it is a little more difficult to manipulate  it into something different. In 2014, we will see more images that have things such as color overlays, blurred images, or even images that are reminiscent of Instagram images with filters.

BONUS: Crazy, sexy, cool stuff
This will be the trend that we hope never ever dies. As the Web grows and becomes more involved, and as more things are developed, designers and Web developers are going to get their hands on them. If you thought parallax scrolling techniques were cool, just you wait.

Expect to see many more things hit the Web in 2014, such as the use of HTML5 to animate different parts of a site.  Just don’t go overboard.

 

Creativity Sparks a Greater ROI

It’s a question often asked of any advertising professional:  “what’s going to be my return on investment?”  While there are many metrics for measuring ROI, measuring the ROI of creativity itself if perhaps the most important consideration.

 

So why do so many businesses play it so safe when promoting their brand?  It’s not fear of the unknown, or even a low tolerance for risk.  Instead, it’s because some don’t fully understand how truly important creativity for creativity’s sake truly is.   If they did, they would do everything in their (and their creative team’s) power to set themselves apart from their competitors in creative, memorable ways.

 

In 2010, England’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising published a study called the “The link between creativity & effectiveness.”  In it they provided a thorough analysis of 435 campaigns studied over a 16-year period from 1994 to 2010.  The report revealed something we creative professionals have always known in our gut – that creativity fuels a greater return on the advertising dollar.  In fact, they discovered that creatively awarded campaigns are 12 times more efficient at increasing a brand’s market share.  Some 77 percent of these campaigns had television advertising at the heart of their success.

 

The report’s summary concluded, “while creativity cannot be defined or prescribed, its effects can be measured and creative ads tend to be enjoyable and involving, and different than other advertising.  They tend to stimulate an emotional response.  Effective ads also tend to generate these responses – and they are also likely to be well branded.”

 

That’s been my experience as well.  When writing a radio spot for ReNew Life Formula’s Diet Start Cleanse, the lead character was a bathroom scale.  He pleaded with his owner to try it and it would help her lose weight, thus making his “life” easier.  We used the voice of Jay Kiernen, (the voice of the cartoon cockroach who screamed “RAID!” at the end of that monumental and long-running campaign), to do the voiceover.  It was a brand and a product worthy going that extra mile, and they were savvy enough to embrace it.  Click here if you’d like to give it a listen.

 

TCS PAP pool cleaner adThen there was this ad for Pinch A Penny Pool, Patio and Spa about automatic pool cleaners.  The brand is built around the notion that pool cleaning is as easy as child’s play, and children were predominant in all advertising.  Plus, children and pools naturally go together, and many pool owners have children in the home.  This ad took a rather mundane topic, automatic pool cleaners, and tied it to the brand in a fun, fresh way. It was engaging, immediately easy for adults with children to identify with, and reinforced a strong sales message.  Such approaches have helped build this brand into a pool care powerhouse, and they are still true to the children and family oriented approach to this day.

 

And that’s the true value of creativity. It has the power to turn the mundane into the exceptional.  Which is why more and more corporations are harnessing the power of creativity to get the best out of their people.  Take, for instance, General Electric.  GE was able to increase patentable concepts by more than 60 percent after its engineers and designers completed a two-year, in-house creativity course.  Participants in Pittsburgh Plate Glass creativity training showed a 300 percent increase in viable ideas compared with those who elected not to take the course.  At Sylvania, several thousand employees took a 40-hour course in creative problem solving.  The ROI for that course was $20 for every $1 spent.

 

Hewlett Packard was an early adopter of creativity training.  The company invested more than $2 billion in R&D in 1999, and generated more than 1,300 patent applications.  The net revenue from their investment in creative thinking? A whopping $42.37 billion that year alone.

 

So the next time you’re thinking about doing a mailer, sending out some email marketing, placing an ad, posting on social media, or filming a TV spot, don’t just think out of the box.  Make a new box to be in.  The return on your investment will be highly rewarding, both emotionally and monetarily, and motivate you to continue to supercharge your brand identity through creativity.


Blog post created by Jennifer Frazier/The Creative Stable

 

 

It’s Conference Season Again!

 

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In April the Colorado/Rocky Mountain AFP will host their annual conference at the Denver Tech Marriott.
In late May the Treasury Management Association of NY (TMANY) will host their annual conference at the NY Hilton.
Radsick Ad Group is proud to assist in the advertising of these 2 premier Treasury and Risk Management Conferences that will have well over a thousand attendees – CFO & management levels from the corporate finance, capital markets, financial planning/analysis and treasury/risk management industries in the US.

Top 10 Advertising Tips for a Small Business

If you are marketing and advertising the same way you learned how to do it in college or even the same way as you were just a couple of years ago, you are probably wasting a lot of money! The world has changed dramatically in the last few years and a wise small business owner must change with the times to get the most from their marketing and advertising budgets. Add to this fact, the present economic climate, and the issue becomes of paramount importance.

 

For retailers it used to be that the most basic and important form of advertising was the Yellow Pages. However, today more people are using the internet and fewer people are using Yellow Pages than ever before. Therefore you might feel that it might make more sense to move some of your advertising budget to internet banner ads. Yet, the results from banner ads have also declined. So what is a small business owner to do? Many small business owners have moved much of their budget to newspaper advertising and have achieved lackluster success. Why? Newspaper subscriptions are also declining with many newspapers filing bankruptcy or going out of business. Again, these days, people are getting their news in other ways than the local newspaper.

 

Below are the top ten low cost advertising techniques. Small business owners should find these tips very useful:

 

 1. Create partnerships and cross promotions. Find other companies that hit your same target audience and are complementary to what you offer. Come up with a win-win barter proposal of how to steer clients to each other. Or, offer bundled promotions using the products/services of each to boost interest in both of your companies. Or, pool your marketing dollars together and create a campaign you could not afford on your own. It can be as small as one or two partners you barter with individually or a group, similar to the wedding industry where florists, hairstylists, veil makers, dress makers, bakers, and printers work together to help each other out.

 

2. Find place-based advertising opportunities that are creative and free. Example: an author coming out with a book about parenting had post-it notes printed about it and they were posted above diaper changing tables in the area. A financial consultant had bookmarks created promoting his business and put them in financial books at local bookstores (very creative, however it may not have gone over well with the bookstore!). Think of how you could use your partnerships as mentioned in #1 for more place-based opportunities.

 

3. Have an effective website. An old study says 70% of people will research online before walking into a store to purchase. That percentage is probably much higher now. A website is a must. There are free services you can use like joomla.org, etc. Or, you can use a blog format like WordPress.com. Having a custom made website with your domain and email is not cost prohibitive as some might imagine. Be sure to use search engine optimization (SEO) to bring people to your site, write articles and place them in free ezines to push people to your site; and use social networking to push people to your site (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). Of course, it may require that you invest a little time in learning new technology that you may not be familiar with, but the reward is well worth the time invested.

 

4. Teleseminars and webinars (webex.com) are cheaper than doing in-person seminars. This is good for businesses that have a long purchase process or a complicated product that is best sold as a demonstration, etc. You can also film a demonstration/presentation and place it on YouTube.com and your website.


5. Leverage your workforce to spread the word.
This can be accomplished through inexpensive flyers or coupons and/or magnetic signs on their automobiles. This can also be accomplished through word of mouth but it is far more difficult to control the message.

 

6. Create a lead generation system and contact them frequently. A form can be added to your website to collect names, telephone numbers and email addresses. You can provide an incentive to your prospective customers to provide this information. Examples might include “Join our mail list and receive advance notice of sales and specials…” or “Join our mail list and receive XX% discount on your next visit…” The more compelling your offer, the more prospective customers will sign-up. Using email to stay in contact with prospective customers is an inexpensive way to go. Use an email distribution service to stay CAN SPAM compliant.

 

7. Targeted TV advertising. If you feel your business requires television advertising, consider using cable TV. Like conventional TV, you can probably get the cable company to create your ad at little or no cost. Then, unlike conventional TV, you can select only the zip codes in which you wish to advertise (those close to your location) thereby paying only for your geographic target market rather than a huge area like conventional TV where most of those viewing your ads are not in your geographic target market. Furthermore, the cable company should have demographic information about viewers of their many channels. This will assist you in matching your products/services to the correct demographic target market.

 

8. Create publicity and press releases. You can use local “groups” within professional social networks (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) to create free publicity and drive prospects to your website as well as your “bricks & mortar” location. Creative press releases can get you on local TV, in the paper and across the web. You can do this yourself if you have the talent or there are services that will do it for you.

 

9. Track results properly so you can save yourself more time and money later on. This is the only way you can fine-tune your results to secure the biggest bang for your advertising dollar.

 

10. Start and maintain a database of prospective customers. This is your goldmine for future success. It can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet or as elaborate as a MySQL or Microsoft SQL housed on a web server. You may only have one use for it today but as time goes by, you will think of many other uses and wish you had this data available to you.

 

Mostly though…it’s SO important to anchor any tactic to a solid strategic direction. For example, after you thoroughly define who your target audience is, develop key selling messages that resonate with that audience and set realistic goals.

Remember: The best tactics can fail if this is not done well.

 

Direct Mail Withstands the Test of Time in Today’s Digital World

Some historical facts:
– Ben Franklin created the first direct mail-order catalog 239 years ago
– Neiman Marcus sold a $1.44M submarine & a $1M diamond necklace from its 2007 direct mail holiday catalog
– Sears Roebuck & Co. sold over 70,000 homes by mail-order from 1908-1940

Today’s facts:
– The average adult in the US receives 40lbs of annual direct mail or 16 pieces per week
– 69% of Americans shop from direct mail catalogs
– Direct mail generates a 31.3% ROI for customer acquisition & 37.5% for customer retention
– 10% more consumers visit a brand’s website in response to direct mail over email
– 48% keep direct mailings for future reference
– 56% believe printed marketing materials are “more trustworthy”
– 2X the number of respondents age 18-34 believe direct mail will never be replaced by
online messaging compared to 20% of those over 55
– Over 30% people read the P.S. 1st
– 20-25% of target customers will return a form
– The average response rate of B2B & B2C consumer mailings: 4.4% direct mail as compared to .12% email
– Citigroup, JPMorganChase, Discover Financial Services – are among the top 5 firms to use direct mail

 

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: Why Paper Still Beats Screens

E-readers and tablets are becoming more popular as such technologies improve,
but reading on paper still has its advantages.

Studies in the past two decades indicate that people often understand and remember text on paper better than on a screen. Screens may inhibit comprehension by preventing people from intuitively navigating and mentally mapping long texts.

In general, screens are also more cognitively and physically taxing than paper. Scrolling demands constant conscious effort, and LCD screens on tablets and laptops can strain the eyes and cause headaches by shining light directly on people’s faces.

Preliminary research suggests that even so-called digital natives are more likely to recall the gist of a story when they read it on paper because enhanced e-books and e-readers themselves are too distracting.

Paper’s greatest strength may be its simplicity.


This article was originally published with the title “Why the Brain Prefers Paper”.

Ferris Jabr/Author

 

 

How Often Have You Replaced Your Carpeting?

This was a line I heard many times while cutting my teeth in this business with Tampa advertising icon Bob Denton at Denton Advertising.  All we did was shelter advertising for large developers, like US Home, ITT Palm Coast, Westinghouse (now WCI), Ryland Homes, Seven Oaks, Cheval, and Tampa Palms to name a few.  Inevitably, there would be a sales manager who wasn’t making their numbers and we as the ad agency must be to blame, right?

 

Wrong.  Here’s how Bob would handle that.  Instead of asking clients how much revenue they were making, he would ask how often they had to replace the carpeting in their sales centers.  The baffled client would say, four, five or however many times they’d replaced worn carpeting. Then Bob would go on to explain that they obviously don’t have a traffic problem, what they have is a sales problem.  And advertising agencies don’t have much control over sales.  

 

Ad agencies are masters of understanding psychographics, building trust in a brand, and motivating prospects if clients give them a realistic budget to work and the freedom to roll out a compelling campaign.  In the case of large developments, we threw every tool we had in our kit at them – from TV to outdoor, newspaper inserts to direct mail.  Because it was our job to deliver qualified bodies to the sales center.  Once there, it was up to the sale team to close them.

 

On the digital side, I work with a proven studio in Philadelphia called Push 10 Design Studios. They recently had a client question poor sales on an e-commerce store they designed.  Even though the Pay-Per-Click campaigns were generating a lot of qualified traffic, conversions were not happening at the rate the client wanted.  Push 10 gave their “replace your carpeting” pep talk to the client, and pointed out the many factors required to close a sale, of which Push 10 had control over only a few.

 

For instance, it was Push 10’s job to generate traffic via PPC campaigns, design the site professionally to build legitimacy and trust, make it easy to use, and provide a simple, error-free checkout process.  The client on the other hand was responsible for providing the right Google Adwords budgets to work with, offering compelling products, providing professional photography that makes the products appealing, competitive pricing, and special incentives like free shipping.

 

Point being…no matter how stunning the website, how easy it is to use, or how able to generate traffic, if the products, imagery, pricing, return policies, and purchasing experience is not up to par with the look and functionality of the site, sales will suffer.

 

So if you’re thinking that your advertising or marketing isn’t working because your sales aren’t where you want them to be, ask yourself, ‘when’s the last time I replaced my carpeting?’  Whether it’s a Berber on the floor of a retail space or a virtual storefront on the World Wide Web, if you’re getting traffic but not reaching your sales goals, then perhaps you’re focusing on the wrong targets, your team might benefit from some training, there’s brand confusion, or you’re trying to be too many things to too many people.

 

But the good news is that ample traffic is a good thing.  You’re then 9/10ths of the way to making the sale.

Blog written/created by Jennifer Frazier.
To view more – visit my partner Jennifer @ www.thecreativestable.com

 

Your Brand is Not a Cheap Date

…so why treat it like it is?
When it comes to brand integration or brand development, many businesses think as long as they have a great logo and tagline they’re set. You can create a campaign and slap a logo on it and you’re done. But that doesn’t always work. Your logo is like make-up. It may make you look pretty, but it’s what’s underneath that counts. All the make-up in the world won’t hide a dysfunctional personality. A logo is not your brand. If your brand is struggling take some time to date it.  Be truthful and honest. You just might get lucky!

Here are three brand development steps for businesses:

1) Get a personality 

Discover what your brand stands for. Be honest with yourself. Like any relationship, if you don’t know what you stand for, then how can you be honest with your relationships? Likewise, if you don’t know what you want your brand to be about, then how will anyone else know? You have to discover your voice.

Take the time to truly look at your business. Be brutally honest. Try and define at least five characteristics you want your business to embody. Make sure they aren’t characteristics that make you say “duh”. For example a bank may want to say they are “secure”. But isn’t that the definition of a bank? I put my money in one because it is secure. Don’t tell me you’re secure if that is an expectation. Look more for personality traits that will create an emotion in people. So instead of a bank being safe, secure, and honest – it might be convenient, flexible, and helpful. Define your unique personality traits. Begin to build a picture of what you believe your brand is all about.

2) Define your dream date

All right, you know what your business stands for now, but what type of consumer wants to use your business?  Who are you trying to attract? You’re all dressed up and sitting at a table just waiting for Mr. or Mrs. Right to sit down. You need to define the type of personalities you expect your buyers to have. Now is the time for you to look at who is actually using your products or services. Profile their demographics. Learn about their spending habits. Are they younger? Older? Do they have families? This is important. You need to understand your consumers so you can offer them the products and services they want or need.

3) Fish the pond

So here we are. You know what you stand for. You know who you want to attract. But do you know what they are thinking? It’s time to get out and find out what people are actually thinking. It’s time for a relationship. That takes understanding and communication. You need to talk to your customers and find out what they think about your brand.  This is one area you don’t want to skimp on. This is how you find the real, meaningful data. This is how you develop a strong bond with your customer. This is where true branding happens and lives happily ever after.

 

So there you have it. Three easy steps you can do now for brand development. Discover your values, understand your customer’s values, and research their opinions about your brand. Arm yourself with this information and you’re sure to get lucky.

 

Kurt Sepf
Director of Creative Services/Fusionfarm

 

Keeping your companies reputation “stellar” in today’s world of social media.

Branding requires a full-time commitment.

You cannot start a branding effort, then stop, and expect to be successful.

Protect your brand while continuously molding and shaping it.

 

5 things to consider:

1) You can run, but you cannot hide. In a world where social media hold everyone accountable for their actions, you need to accept the fact that if you upset your customers, or your fans, you will likely hear about it on one of the social-media platforms. Many companies are scared that social media will ruin their brands’ reputations, so they hide from it. Confront the problem or questions head-on, and go to bat for your brand.

2) The lens is everywhere. In a world where citizens have become journalists with their mobile devices, assume that you, and those using your products and services, are being photographed or videotaped. Watch what you say or do in the public eye.

3) Be transparent. Candor is at a premium when managing your online reputation. If you’ve inadvertently angered someone, come clean. If your customer service didn’t live up to expectations, or your brand did not perform as advertised, be straight as to why, and how you plan to rectify it. If you don’t, you will inflame the situation, which can quickly get out of control in the social world.

4) Educate those who use the tools. Little has been said or written about the importance of educating the next generation about reputation management. The more intelligently people use social tools, the more they will use them in a productive way.

5) Get out ahead of the noise. You never want to have to be reactive when managing a reputation, though there are times when you need to respond to a situation. The best way to enhance a reputation, whether for an individual or a company, is to have a plan. Develop your message. Identify your most important social platforms. Build and engage an audience with thoughtful content.

In an era that has seen reputations rise and fall in spectacular ways online — and very quickly — it is prudent to take the most thoughtful approach possible to managing one’s brand.